Dissecting the New Anatomy Content in the Wolfram Language

The human body has been a subject of study since the earliest days of human history. The modern scientific fields of anatomy and physiology stem from the Renaissance symbiosis of art and anatomy. In the early 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci was among the first to accurately sketch bodily structures. In 1543, Andreas Vesalius published the famous textbook De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) with beautiful illustrations of the human body.

With modern technology at our disposal, we can take anatomy and physiology off the page and digitally put it into a readily computable format. Through Wolfram|Alpha, we are making it possible for you to gain further insight into how individual anatomical structures interplay in the human body and explore it from entire organ systems down to microscopic ganglia.

Anatomical structure data is also accessible via the Wolfram Language.

Let’s start out with the musculoskeletal system. Whether you are a gymnast or someone who takes regular trips to the local gym, you may want to build your leg muscles. Which muscles are those? The Wolfram Language can provide a list of muscles that are part of the leg:

The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (red) is associated with appetite regulation [3], and you can see its projections to brainstem areas, which serve gastrointestinal functions.

Lastly, let’s take a look at where to find this nucleus. The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus is in the left hemisphere of your brain, located very much in the center:

Whether anatomy is part of your daily work or just a casual interest, computable anatomy data can offer you an easier and deeper understanding of how human body parts relate to one another. If you would like to explore further, check out this AnatomyData documentation for an easily accessible and large variety of anatomical concepts and their properties.

I really love the way with computer graphics you can add and remove items, like muscles, ligaments and bones on the anatomical reproductions, the ability to go in close and expand areas is also extremely interesting, as is the ability to isolate organs as with the heart in the first image.